Back bay fishing fun!
May 13, 2023
Stone Harbor
1 photo
Bass (Striped)
Bluefish
Spotted Seatrout
Trip Summary
Trip Summary
Ran the Brynnie-B II around the back bays this morning with Justin and Amy onboard. The forecast wasn't great, but we figured we'd try to beat the rain and see what we could find.
We had a nice assortment of baits; salted shad and mackeral, minnows, Zman's, and Gulp. We each dropped a rod down and waited to see what might come out to play.
My first creek of choice had a wicked eddy toward the top end, and was quite a bit more shallow than expected. The wind was blowing across the creek which made the drifts a bit wonky. I finally ended up deploying the trolling motor to compensate. We made four drifts down the creek with everyone getting a hit here and there, but no hook ups.
We moved out into the ICW and drifted in various depths from 6' to 26' or more. On our first drift I felt like we were in water that was much to deep for this time of the year. But then again, the water was reading 66 degrees. Suddenly Justin got hammered and he pulled in a spike weakie. It was a start. On the next three drifts it was the same, each ending with Justin catching a spike weakie.
I adjusted the drift a bit, and Justin still got his little weakie, but he also nailed a nice 18.5" flounder. Next drift he got hammered by a 22" flounder. Both flounder came while drifting up a steep slope, from 20' of water to about 6'. We dialed the drift in, but only got another spike weakie and small blue.
I moved the drift out into deeper water and worked over an area that is usually productive. Amy hauled in a nice 22" weakie and then a bigger blue. Justin got another snapper blues. Once the tide died out I deployed the trolling motor again. About that time some rain moved in and we decided to move.
We made a short run to another area and tried a few drifts. I landed a dink flounder and missed another. Amy landed a 17.5" flounder right after. On subsequent drifts we got some half hearted hits, and both Justin and Amy got some epic snags. We called it a day after Justin's. It was a really fun morning.
I had planned on hitting the surf too, but the weather pretty much shut that plan down. Not to mention there was an ASAC tournament today too. There have been some really solid reports of stripers and drum in the surf, so that is definitely on the hit list. And from the sound of it, the Delaware Bay drum fishing is beginning to light up. And then there are the pictures and reports of the bigger weakfish that have been missing for far too long popping up. I may need to bust out the Korkers...
Tight Lines!